Artemis Fowl: The Cracked Reflection
by witchintraining
Summary: My first fic: When Trouble disapears and the LEP find that Artemis could be involved they are worried. But when they find out that the mind wipe may have driven him insane...
1. The Message

Artemis Fowl  
  
Chapter One: The Message  
  
Since his mind had been wiped two years ago of the fairy people, Artemis Fowl had been very busy. Despite being away from Fowl Manor and at boarding school for most of the last two years, Artemis had forged five art masterpieces, bankrupted ten corporations and had "earned" over $15billion US dollars from his new software that diverted funds from others' bank accounts to his own. It would take a lot to surprise a boy like him, as Artemis simply isn't a normal fifteen year old. But as Artemis sat in his small, undecorated room finishing the pathetic rubbish that had been set as homework, the last thing he could expect to happen was about to. There was a knock at the door. A sheepish looking prefect looked round the door. Cautiously, as if checking for mines, he came in. 'Yes?' said Artemis in one of his coldest voices. 'There's a letter for you, Artemis' the prefect just about managed. He put it down quickly and practically ran from the room. Artemis usually had that effect on people. Despite himself, Artemis was curious. He never received letters. His parents, Juliet and Butler all e-mailed him on his pathetic excuse for a computer. He picked up the letter. Inside were two letters and a tiny disk covered in slightly chipped gold leaf. The first letter was labelled, 'Before the disk' and the second, 'After the disk'. He opened the first letter cautiously. It simply read:  
Rightfully these are yours. Read the entire disk.  
Together we will be unstoppable.  
An old friend.  
  
Curiously, he opened the second letter. It simply stated:  
If you are reading this you haven't read the disk. Read it and  
reclaim your legacy.  
The same friend.  
  
Artemis examined the disk and suddenly had a flash back: Just his arm snatching a coin out of the air. He shook himself and loaded the disk at 8:30pm. He had finished by 9:55, and then with his head swimming, he fainted. He came around at about 10:30, waking up properly for the first time in over two years. Artemis grinned his infamous vampire. Together they would be unstoppable. 


	2. Lost Dreams

Artemis Fowl  
  
Chapter Two: Lost Dreams  
  
Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon should have been happy. Root and Chix were off her back, she'd just received a pay raise, she had beaten Foaly at poker and had a date later with Trouble Kelp. But something was missing from her life, and if she was honest with herself she knew what it was. Artemis Fowl. The second to be more precise. Her archenemy, her near friend. In the two years since his mind had been wiped, his memories of the fairy people erased from his mind forever, her life had become... normal. Boring in fact. Sometimes she wished that Fowl had found a way to beat Foaly, that something had escaped his search, but Holly knew Foaly and knew there were still monthly checks. Root was calmer, and Foaly was indifferent but Holly... longed for him. For the crazy plots, the near misses, the adrenaline rush. As she finally left for home her mind was diverted by the crush of Haven traffic. When she got home her mind had plenty of peace to wander dreamily as she sank into a slime bath. She missed more than the adventures, she missed him. Ironically, she thought, this boy that had once held her hostage in his mansion, her once nemesis, now kept her within her own house. And whatever Foaly said, they had been friends, and he had almost been decent. He had been about to go straight like his father. They had done so much for each other, so much to each other. I could have done more to save you, she thought. How could I let them do this to you? That night her dreams were haunted by Artemis. First an Artemis snatching a small gold coin out of the air, then a former Artemis, a cruel smirk on his lips. Artemis, crying just after his father's rescue, locking himself in a study for two hours planning. Asking her to cut off the supposed Spiro's thumb, Artemis speaking to Foaly and herself before having his mind-wiped. Then came the fantasies, scenes that had never happened. Artemis accusing her of being responsible of wiping his mind, of not trying to stop them. Every time Holly responded that it wasn't her fault he changed and couldn't remember who she was at all. And the last one was always the same: Artemis, dressed all in black or close to black colours, walking down a snow-covered path. She was watching him, shielded, and every time he stopped and looked exactly where she was and just stared with his piercing blue eyes. Such an amazing, pure, perfect colour. Such wondrous, torturous eyes. In her sleep, a single tear rolled down Holly Short's cheek.  
  
The next night, when she got up, she was still thinking of him, but was trying to be more objectionable. She was having a silent appeal for his case for the mind wipe, but kept coming up with reasons like, for his defence, "his eyes" which weren't really reasons all. At least her life wasn't completely empty: later that day she had her date with Trouble. After knowing each other for decades she had finally caved in. By mutual consent neither had told anyone, especially not Root or Foaly in case it went to wrong for explanation. She didn't need to worry really about hitting it off. Not that she shouldn't have worried. Not that at all. 


	3. One More Problem

Artemis Fowl: The Cracked Reflection

Chapter Three: One more problem  
  
Louise Bentley was quite different from Artemis Fowl. She lived in a normal sized house in England and wasn't particularly rich. She wasn't a "social reject" as she would describe him and didn't have any need for a bodyguard. But she was smart, and now she knew about the Fairy People.  
  
Louise had been thirteen when her father, visiting a mental institute in Hamburg, had been blown up. He had gone back to Hamburg, the source of his madness trying to find a cure. It had been reported that the road outside their hotel and all the surrounding building had been destroyed in a bad gas leak that was ignited by a cigarette. But Louise knew better. She was convinced that her father had been killed because of the work he was doing. He had never really said what it was he was always researching, but one day it had him really excited, the next crazy and, a month later, dead.  
  
Louise started by hacking into her father's computer but was startled when there was nothing there. She checked the history, and saw that there had been extensive files, but they had all been erased on the same day. But this, instead of putting her off, drove her on, more convincing her of her conspiracy theories. She checked her computer, her mother's computer, even her father's computer at work. Still nothing. Each time all files were deleted at the same time on the same day. But then a breakthrough.  
  
Louise had been left at a friend of the families one night when her mother who had come back into her life after the death of her father, had to go to a business weekend in New York. Hacking on to her computer revealed many files the enemy had not noticed. They were all in the recycle bin but had been put there by the user, rather than this unknown adversary. What she found astounded her. For years her father had been investigating abnormalities, UFO sightings and reports of aliens and fairies, and he had become convinced that there was a single race responsible: a race of fairies. He had pages of proof and argument, and the more Louise read the deeper she believed anything she read there. She was empowered to do something, to alert someone. She read that these fairies had been messing with humans' lives for as long as there were humans to mess with. And she didn't like it.  
  
She spent years gathering as much information on these creatures as possible, continuing her father's legacy. And then something terrible happened to the people around her and something that aided her immensely happened. She was sixteen when her drunken boyfriend had crashed a car he was driving into an oncoming truck. Neither had been wearing seatbelts and both were lucky to survive. But her boyfriend went into a coma, and Louise's eyes and brain had been damaged severely. In the operating theatre the doctors took the only choice they ad: rebuilding her eyes and the damaged part of her brain before it killed more of her.  
  
They replaced her eyes with special cameras and her optic nerve wit shorter wire. When she came around, Louise's eyesight was a hundred times faster than any camera, a thousand times faster than the normal human eye. She could now literally watch the hovering flight of hummingbirds. And, as an added bonus, see through a fairy shield.

**Please Review so I can see how I'm doing... Next chapter coming soon!**


	4. Meetings with Friends

**A/N Yeah yeah I'm sorry ok? I do like this story, I just struggle writing it. Reviews help me think that its worth it to continue this story, so please tell me, even if its only short. I really do appreciate all the ones I get.**

**Anyway, ONWARDS!**

* * *

**Chapter Four: Meetings with Friends**

Artemis was feeling the closest thing to happiness since his father had been returned to him. He had regained his memories on the previous Thursday and had been almost nice to people since in the rest of the week, even his therapist, who was baffled. But now as Artemis was sitting in the Bentley being driven steadily closer to his first meeting with Mulch for just over two years he was going over possible future enterprises with him. He wondered what Holly or Root would think if they knew that their two favourite criminals were getting back together. In the back of the Bentley, Artemis Fowl II smiled and began to think.

* * *

At the same time about five hundred miles away in England; one Louise Bentley had a lead. She had read that one Artemis Fowl II had been seen all over the world at once and that he had supposed powers; apparently he had once escaped from over one hundred Mafia while rescuing his near dead father from kidnappers in the middle of the arctic. This was clearly impossible, Louise had reasoned, but instead of dismissing this story that so many believed as hear' say, it fed her paranoia. This Artemis Fowl was said to be a genius she read, so maybe he had magic help from these devious pixies. The more that she read about him from various sites and files the more excited she became. This Artemis was a criminal, and a very rich one, that clearly knew all about the fairies and would surly help her exploit them. She decided that she had to meet this person, and scrolling down his files to try and find an e-mail address was shocked to see that he was only just 16, three years younger than herself. Then she smiled. Let's see how smart you are then, Artemis Fowl.

* * *

Holly was nervous. She was about to go on her first date in about eight years, and with Trouble Kelp. She was wearing some of her best clothes; that complimented both the olive of her skin and the hazel in her eyes. She had showered in perfumed, well, slime and even added some makeup. She glanced at her watch. 6:50am. She was being picked up at seven for dinner and drinks as her half sister called it. A shiver went down her spine, and it was couple of seconds before she realised it had nothing to do with Trouble Kelp. It was her gut telling her not to go on this date for reasons that were more than just embarrassment. Something bad was happening, and something bad was going to happen. Not necessarily today, but this would be the start of something bigger that she wouldn't like. Holly told her gut to shut up as the doorbell rang, and went to answer the door.

* * *

Mulch Diggums was very excited at meeting Artemis again, but also slightly scared. He knew what the boy could have been, and how cruel he could be. Would regaining his memories bring back the almost nice, nearly honest Artemis? Or had Mulch just triggered the end of the fairy world? Currently he was sitting in taxi heading toward the agreed meeting place, as Fowl Manor would undoubtedly be under the watchful eye of Foaly, monitoring Artemis' every move and visitor, and most of his "Business" dealings. No doubt he also enjoyed watching and learning from the exceptional boy. Mulch smiled. He wondered what Holly, root and Foaly had been doing for the last to years, and what they would say if they knew what he had started up again. As the taxi rounded off the main road, Mulch signed and leaned back. Whatever it was, there was no stopping it now.

* * *

Holly was desperately trying to calm her nerves. The meal had gone find, well even, and they were starting to warm and open up to each other. But Holly just could seem to shake Artemis from her mind. Things were complicated there. She was really confused in that area in fact. She didn't fancy him, she knew that much, at least. She shuddered when she realised that she had even considered the possibility. He was a Mud Boy, and her ex-kidnapper. But she couldn't stop her mind from throwing him up at every opportunity, and also, to a lesser extent, Mulch Diggums. Strange how little, after being criminals, that those two actually had in common, yet they got on so well. Foaly and Root had been sure that it was Artemis that had somehow saved Mulch from the minimum of 50 years that he was so clearly guilty of, but there was no evidence and, at the time, the Mud Boy in question had been mind wiped for at least six months.

* * *

After taking her for dinner and the fairy equivalent of the theatre, Trouble Kelp, had two surprises. The first for Holly was an above ground pass for England at the nighttime of full moon. There was really not much that would be more romantic, and this finally stopped her thinking of anyone else. They rented wing and went flying for hours. Shielded, of course, but what was more amazing was how Trouble had got the tickets. She had only agreed to go on this date two weeks ago and passes like these could take years of queuing. It was an amazing night, and it wasn't over yet.

Holly's second surprise was when Trouble without warning just fell out of the air, heading straight to the ground.

* * *

Artemis had been at the spot for twenty minutes when Mulch finally showed up, but Artemis was only a little annoyed. He ad used the time to finalise the plan for their first venture. It was simple enough bank robbery, but it had to happen. And of course, in a new and foolproof plan. It was only after he had given the instructions and various codes to Mulch and driven away again, back to Fowl Manor, did he realise that he had an e-mail from one Louise Bentley.

_Artemis Fowl II,_ the e-mail read,

_I have read your many websites and have heard that you are a rich genius, and hope that you will be able to help in my cause._

_My name is Louise Bentley, my father, James Bentley. He was killed in Hamburg just over six years ago now, and I believe, as he did, in the existence of fairies. It was this belief that killed him and since I have tried with little or no effect to seek out vengeance. Though my attempts have proved less than successful, I have gathered a wealth of knowledge and hope that you will help me in my plight against these creatures. Do not dismiss this without thought, for I do have certain advantages at my disposal. It is my belief, Artemis Fowl, that you and I could become useful partners now and in the future._

_I await your reply,_

_Louise Bentley_

* * *

Re-reading the e-mail, Louise Bentley was finally satisfied. She hit the send button, and then returned to reading and memorising her own fairy database. It is Incredibly boring trying to memorise one's own work, and the fact that she did this solely as a mind exercise in will and purpose gives a clearer picture of the potential lengths that she would go to.

* * *

Artemis read the e-mail in the Bentley going back to Fowl Manor. He wondered which angle to approach this girl. Should he agree to work with her, refuse, or just pretend that he didn't know what she was talking about. Artemis decided to see how serious she was, starting with an e-mail that read:

_Ms. Bentley,_

_I neither know who you are nor who these 'fairies' of which you talk are, and believe that you have read too many myths recently. Instead of me I recommend that you visit a hospital. Do not bother me further as I have much more important ventures to prepare._

_Artemis Fowl II_

Even as he sent this e-mail Artemis could feel that this was the beginning of something important, but did not know how. Artemis decided that after this Louise contacted him twice more he would meet her. Artemis then went to his study and began to meditate on the stand of such a strange problem.

* * *

Louise Bentley did not receive Artemis' reply as she was out in her garden, enjoying the evening air, the sky lit quite well by a full moon. When she first heard the disturbance she thought it would be a fox or maybe a badger. When she finally saw the pair of creatures annoying her she went back into her house to fetch a camera, then changed her mind and brought out a shotgun.

As she levelled it her father training her came back to her, and she knew she would only be able to hit one of them. She chose her mark, cocked the gun, checked her aim and fired one shot.

* * *

The bullet hit Trouble's wings, bounced off his helmeted head and sank deep into his shoulder. It pierced three major arteries, fractured his equivent of a collarbone and lodged itself just puncturing his right lung. He fell out of the air with no warning, hitting the ground the next second. Concussion was immediate.

* * *

Holly didn't understand. One minute she and Trouble had been flying talking, then they paused to admire the moonlight, then he had just dropped from the sky. She followed him lower, but did not get to close to the ground. There was something hostile here. She checked her shield was still on then cautiously hovered lower.

* * *

Before Louise's father had been a reporter, he had served a brief spell in the army. He had taught her how to shoot, and the second creature didn't disappear immediately she cocked the gun again and started to aim for a second time.

* * *

Holly was very lucky that at the last moment she darted diagonally, so her bullet only cut into her arm. At that point her worry for Trouble was outclassed by her worry for her own life and decided to come back with some of the LEP. She flew as fast as she could to the shuttle port, hoping that Trouble had enough magic to survive the injuries.

* * *

Louise Bentley carried the tiny fairy indoors, which was when she noticed that there blue sparks floating over her captive. She touched one spark experimentally and it fled up her arm and neck and sunk into her eye. She quickly took her arm away, but noticed that they were repairing the damage that her shotgun had caused. Wonderingly she brought up a slim knife and cut what had to be the fairy's skin, and watched as the cut was repaired. But the sparks were starting to slow down. Good she thought. So you _do _have a weakness then.

* * *

Um, yeah. The story will star tin essence soon, if I ever get there. I just really have to set it up properly first. Forgive me in your review please?


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